I tweeted about this recipe a few weeks ago and just never got the chance to post it. I blame Vegas, because the week leading up to my bachelorette involved a whole lot of working, working out and packing. Not much time for blogging, unfortunately. Now that I’m back and feeling stellar, it’s time to share the super easy recipe for caramelized onions and spicy open faced turkey burgers!

However, I must tell you, this is not your typical turkey burger. I added some crushed red pepper, garlic and onions into the meat goo blob [as my fiancée calls it] to really give the meat a standout flavor.

I’ll let your mouths water a bit before I continue.

As delicious and spicy as the burger was, the best part, by far, was the addition of the caramelized onions and ‘shrooms. Just the smell alone of these vegetables sauteing in a bit of olive oil makes me salivate. I ate at least half of the caramelized mixture I made specifically for the burgers, leaving both of us just enough to top one burger each. E wasn’t too happy about this but I stick to the “I made it, I get first dibs!” argument. Call me selfish but those who’ve smelled the tantalizing scent of caramelizing vegetables know’s just how hard they are to not gobble up immediately. He should be happy I didn’t eat them all!

There’s not a more beautiful sight, I’ll argue. And there were literally no surrenders left. Not even a small, tiny, little withered up onion. Nada. I cleaned the plate. I was minutes away from licking the bowl until E stopped me. I’m ashamed to admit how close I was. Just utterly embarrased. But just peek at them, you’d do the same right? This is getting inappropriate. Food porn alert!

Once the burgers were stacked, a bun on top become almost impossible. So instead, I enjoyed a lovely open face variety. Not to mention, I shaved off the extra calories and carbs that come with a top bun! To give the burger more of a diner flair as well, we chose to toast whole-grain English muffins instead. What we didn’t eat, we had leftover for breakfast!

Open Face Turkey Burgers with Carmelized Shroom’s and Onions

What You’ll Need:

1 pound of 92% fat free ground turkey, defrosted

2 cups of chopped mushrooms

1 medium onion, chopped [1/4 cup set aside]

2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon of crushed red pepper

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

Whole-grain English muffins

Dashes of salt and pepper

1 egg

1/2 cup bread crumbs

1/2 tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce

How to Make Them:

Using your hands, squish meat, 1/4 cup onions, garlic clove, red pepper, bread crumbs, egg, Worcestershire sauce and salt and pepper in a large bowl. Mix until the ingredients are able to be formed into patties without crumbling. If necessary, add extra bread crumbs to keep the meat dough together.

Once patties have been formed,set them aside. Heat up your stove top grill [example here] and cook patties until they are cooked through.

While burgers are grilling, heat a skillet with olive oil. Put onions and mushrooms in and sautee until soft and caramelized. [The smell alone will get you, I promise].